North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia on Tuesday joined by his top military officials handling his nuclear-capable weapons and munitions factories. Kim is expected to hold a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Puting during his trip that has sparked concerns for the West about a potential arms deal for Moscow’s war in Ukraine. As per North Korea’s official news agency, Kim boarded his personal train from Pyongyang on Sunday afternoon.
Spokesperson for South Korea’s Defence Ministry, Jeon Ha Gyu said in a briefing that Seoul’s military was assessing that Kim’s train crossed into Russia sometime early Tuesday without elaborating on how the military obtained the information, as per an AP report.
Japanese broadcaster TBS, citing unidentified Russian regional officials, said that Kim’s train crossed the border and arrived in the border town of Khasan, the AP report added.
The AP report cited its journalists near the North Korea-Russia frontier as seeing a a green train with yellow trim — similar to one used by the reclusive Kim during previous foreign trips — at a station on the North Korean side of a border river.
“The train was seen moving back and forth between the station and the approach to the bridge that connects the countries, but it had not crossed the bridge as of 7 p.m. local time,” the report said.
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Kim-Putin Meeting
On Monday, a brief statement on the Kremlin's website stated that Kim is visiting Russia at Putin’s invitation and would take place in the “coming days”. KCNA also said the leaders would meet but did not specify when and where.
As per the AP report, Spokesperson for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov said that Putin and Kim will lead their delegations in talks and could also meet “one-on-one if necessary.” He added that Putin will host an official dinner for Kim.
The talks will focus on bilateral ties, Peskov said, adding “as with any of our neighbours, we feel obliged to develop good, mutually beneficial relations.”
A possible venue for the meeting is the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, where Putin arrived on Monday to attend an international forum that runs through Wednesday, as per Russia’s TASS news agency. Putin’s first meeting with Kim in 2019 also took place in the same city, located about 680 kilometres from Pyongyang.
The South Korean media reported that a Kim-Putin meeting is possible as early as Tuesday but the same was not immediately confirmed by South Korea’s Presidential Office, Defense Ministry and National Intelligence Service.
US Warns Sanction
The United States expressed its concern that Putin could focus securing more supplies of North Korean artillery and other ammunition to refill declining reserves in its war against Ukraine
“Arms discussions between Russia and the DPRK are expected to continue during Kim Jong Un’s trip to Russia,” said White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson, the AP report stated.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said US will monitor the meeting closely and reminded that Washington "will not hesitate to impose new sanctions" in case of "“any transfer of arms from North Korea to Russia."